Aircraft kit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aircraft kit is the pre-fabricated parts of an aircraft. The individual parts of the aircraft (fuselage, wings, horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer, landing gear, cowling, etc.) are dispatched from the manufacturer unassembled, similar to a model aircraft kit. The owner then has to assemble the parts and pieces to make up the aircraft.

In the United States, the owner/builder must complete at least 51% of the fabrication for the FAA to consider it a home-built aircraft.

Some examples of aircraft kit manufacturers, past and present, include:

• Aero Composites
• Algie composite aircraft
• Bede Aircraft
• Cirrus Design
• Glastar
• Lancair
• Murphy Aircraft
• Quickie Aircraft
• Rans
• RotorWay
• Revolution Helicopter (defunct)
• Rutan Aircraft Factory (defunct), now folded into Scaled Composites
• Vans